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News About Tech, Money and InnovationTue, 31 Mar 2015 22:38:55 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Copyright 2015, VentureBeatJibo closes $25M round for its personal robot: ‘a cross between a tablet and a puppy’http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/21/jibo-closes-25m-round-for-its-personal-robot-a-cross-between-a-tablet-and-a-puppy/
http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/21/jibo-closes-25m-round-for-its-personal-robot-a-cross-between-a-tablet-and-a-puppy/#commentsWed, 21 Jan 2015 12:30:50 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1645950Sophisticated personal social robots for the home look like big business, and investors clearly want in. That’s the message today with the announcement that Jibo Inc. — whose small, table-top Jibo robot can serve as a personal secretary, an educational assistant, a social media director, and more — has closed a $25.3 million Series A […]
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Sophisticated personal social robots for the home look like big business, and investors clearly want in.

That’s the message today with the announcement that Jibo Inc. — whose small, table-top Jibo robot can serve as a personal secretary, an educational assistant, a social media director, and more — has closed a $25.3 million Series A round of funding. The round was led by RRE Ventures, and joined by Charles River Ventures, Fairhaven, Osage University Partners, Flybridge Capital Partners, Two Sigma Ventures, Formation 8, Samsung Ventures, and additional angel investors.

Jibo was the brainchild of Cynthia Breazeal, the director of the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, and the creator of the Kismet robot. With the funding news, Jibo also announced that Breazeal is transitioning from company CEO to its chief scientist. Steve Chambers, a speech-recognition expert who spent years with Nuance Communications — including as its president — and who has been serving as Jibo’s executive chairman, is taking over as the company’s CEO.

There have been other attempts at personal robots, like Softbank’s Pepper. But the Jibo seems to have raised the bar by adopting a friendly, almost whimsical attitude, a rather cute countenance, and the ability to interact with people in a wide variety of ways. The question the company faces is whether there’s enough interest in a robot that will cost $600. Judging by the fact that the company’s initial Indiegogo campaign generated 2,288 percent of its goal, the odds are in its favor.

One of Jibo’s biggest selling points is its ability to take part in complex video chatting. The robot has a series of built-in touch and audio sensors, and its face rotates toward whomever is speaking to it, making it seem like it’s having a real-life conversation. It can also take photos, and has a reading app — meaning that users can upload books to its library, and the robot will read to you, complete with displays of cartoons on its screen (its face) as well as character-appropriate voices.

“The platform has a unique ability for a user to bond with a Jibo,” said Bruce Sachs, a partner at Charles River Ventures. “Part of that is its ability to sense and show emotion. It’s like a cross between a tablet and a puppy.”

Chambers told VentureBeat that Jibo had originally set out to raise $15 million, but got far more interest than expected. Now, the company is planning on using its new funds to fulfill the 4,800 pre-sale orders its $2.3 million Indiegogo campaign generated, to eventually boost its workforce seven-fold, to fund further research and development, and to contract with third-party manufacturers. Indiegogo backers paid $499 for a standard Jibo, and $599 for a developer version. Once it’s on sale to the general public, the price will be $599.

Currently, Jibo has 15 employees and plans to “more than triple that within” a year, Chambers said.

Jibo expects to start shipping its robots to its “early adopters,” mainly developers, by December or early next January and will begin shipping to everyone else, including its Indiegogo backers, next year.

But Breazeal told VentureBeat that it’s essential that developers get their hands on the first Jibos because they will be the ones making the applications — called “skills” — that will make the robot as interesting and rich as possible. Breazeal said the company plans on building out its developer community over the next few months.

And while no Jibos will ship until late in the year at the earliest, the company plans on releasing a simulator that it will make available to developers by mid-2015.

Sachs said Jibo had originally set up shop in Charles River Ventures’ Cambridge, Mass. offices, and that after he had spent some time looking at the field of personal robotics, he’d come across Breazeal. She “blew me away, and was head and shoulders above anybody else I met in the space,” Sachs said. “She invented the personal robotics space.”

Charles River Ventures was also a seed investor in Jibo, and today, Sachs added, the firm feels that personal robotics is “an area where a big company could get built. It’s a new category, and [Breazeal] was the right person to put a robot in everybody’s home.”

]]>0Jibo closes $25M round for its personal robot: ‘a cross between a tablet and a puppy’Why have one robot when you can have 100?http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/19/why-have-one-robot-when-you-can-have-100/
http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/19/why-have-one-robot-when-you-can-have-100/#commentsMon, 19 Jan 2015 20:56:03 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1645084The CellRobot is a modular, customizable system that can be made into any of dozens, or hundreds of robots.
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Everybody loves robots, but most people only have one, if even that. But a Chinese startup thinks you should be able to have as many as you want — all in a single product.

That’s the premise behind CellRobot, a customizable, reconfigurable robot project that is expected to launch a Kickstarter campaign next week, looking to raise $250,000.

CellRobot comes as a collection of small, spherical, modular robot cells, which, when combined in different ways, make individual robots that can do any of a wide variety of different tasks.

“Just like the cells in our bodies which work together to create life and function, [cells] serve as the essential building blocks for each CellRobot,” Beijing-based Cell Robotics wrote on its Kickstarter campaign page. “Once connected, they can perform any function, and be manipulated into an endless variety of interesting and easy-to-assemble shapes.”

The idea is simple: By connecting multiple cells together — including one energy cell that powers the complete robot — you can craft a robot capable of things such as driving around like a vehicle, reaching to turn off an alarm clock, or slithering across the ground like a snake. It can even play piano. “It can be your intelligent lamp, flexible machine arm, a light monster in parties, an interesting pet dog, a fast scout car, a special aircraft, and so on,” Cell Robotics claimed.

The system is controlled by the CellRobot mobile app.

Cell Robotics developed its modular, customizable system as part of the Haxlr8tr hardware accelerator.

In teaching mode, the system can suggest existing designs, with the app giving building instructions. Alternatively, in self-controlling mode, owners can create their own brand-new designs, using the app to configure the speed, rotation, and orientation of the various cells. Those new creations can then be shared to other CellRobot users.

At the core of the CellRobot is the system’s Heart, a single cell that is the power and brains behind each individual robot creation. The user incorporates a single heart into a set of cells, allowing the robot to move and behave as designed.

Above: At the core of the Cell Robotics system is its Heart, a cell that provides power and brain function.

Image Credit: Cell Robotics

In its Kickstarter video, CellRobot said it hopes to deliver product to its backers “before Santa Claus.” That means this October, the company said. For $199, backers get one heart and four cells; for $299, it’s one heart, eight cells, and an X-cell classic — two wheels or a camera. At $399, backers get two hearts, 12 cells, and an X-cell deluxe — four wheels.

The CellRobot won’t be the only customizable robot on the market. Others include Sphero, Tinkerbots, and even Lego’s programmable Mindstorms system. There are also other personal robots available today, or coming soon — things like the Jibo, the Personal Robot, and Softbank’s Pepper. But Cell Robotics clearly hopes its approach will set it apart, offering design sophistication, a high degree of customization, and usability for novices or those with more experience.

Of course, for Cell Robotics to succeed, it needs funding, and that appears to be up to the Kickstarter community. The company’s $250,000 goal is ambitious, but crowdfunders have happily helped others reach, and surpass, their goals, so Cell Robotics has reason to be optimistic.

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]]>0Why have one robot when you can have 100?Toshiba’s ChihiraAico robotic receptionist is a spooky singerhttp://venturebeat.com/2015/01/09/toshibas-chihiraaico-is-a-spooky-singing-receptionist-and-a-lifelike-robot/
http://venturebeat.com/2015/01/09/toshibas-chihiraaico-is-a-spooky-singing-receptionist-and-a-lifelike-robot/#commentsFri, 09 Jan 2015 19:00:03 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1638750Toshiba's communications robot greeted visitors to the booth with eerie singing and lifelike movements.
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Toshiba greeted visitors to its 2015 International CES booth with a humanoid communications robot named ChihiraAico. She could speak in English or Japanese, and even sing.

Toshiba’s engineers created her to “achieve real heart-warming communications with human-like facial expression and with any possible body language.”

She took advantage of natural and realistic facial expression based on joint research with Osaka University. She also used quick, silent, and smooth body movement thanks to a pneumatic drive system created with the Shibaura Institute of Technology and the Shonan Institute of Technology. Toshiba described her as a “robot for tomorrow’s service industry and homes.”

]]>0Toshiba’s ChihiraAico robotic receptionist is a spooky singerThis telepresence robot is missing legs and wheels — on purposehttp://venturebeat.com/2014/01/28/this-telepresence-robot-is-missing-legs-and-wheels-on-purpose/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/28/this-telepresence-robot-is-missing-legs-and-wheels-on-purpose/#commentsTue, 28 Jan 2014 20:12:03 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=888102Take a robot. Chop off its head, discard the body, give it an extra-long neck, and stick an iPad where its face was. Voilà: Now you have a Kubi telepresence bot. Everyone wants to build and buy telepresence robots lately: semi-autonomous machines that allow remote workers and colleagues to chat face-to-face. DoubleRobotics has a sleek, […]
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Take a robot. Chop off its head, discard the body, give it an extra-long neck, and stick an iPad where its face was.

The inspiration for Kubi was simple: Seeing development teams simply duct-taping a tablet to a wall. After exploring various existing tablet stands, cofoundrs Marcus Rosenthal and Ilya Polyakov decided that they mostly “look right up your nose.”

“We started out designing one of those mobile bots — being robotics guys, we thought it was cool,” Rosenthal told me via (of course) Kubi. “But then we thought about it practically: Most of the time in your meeting, you’re not moving around, so you’ve paid for this roaming capability you’re not even using. The real need is just looking around the room.”

So Rosenthal and Polyakov designed Kubi, a telepresence bot that costs “from one-fifth to even one-hundredth the cost” of other bots. Kubi has a flexible, rotating neck on which you place the head: any recent Android or iOS tablet. And then you plant Kubi wherever you want it — on a conference table, at your desk, in reception — and carry it around if you want to have mobile conversations.

The result is surprisingly interactive.

Above: Marcus Rosenthal via Kubi.

Image Credit: John Koetsier

When I tried Kubi for the first time, I continued to have virtual meetings with Skype or Hangouts on my iPad Air. But I gave my colleagues and clients a web address where they could control what they see — a Kubi control page. By clicking around on the page, they effectively made my Kubi-app-equipped iPad control Kubi’s neck, enabling them to peer around my office, adjust the angle at which they were viewing me, or focus in on my computer screen.

And when I chatted with Polyakov and Rosenthal, I was able to focus on the speaker at any given moment. When they gave me a tour of their production facilities — a couple of desks at Lemnos Labs, a San Francisco-based hardware accelerator — I could spin their Kubi’s neck to take in the whole cluttered hardware hacker’s paradise.

“We target [small and medium-sized businesses],” Rosenthal says. “They want solutions for their four-to-10 person conference rooms and don’t have the budget for a video-conferencing solution that’s tens of thousands or more.”

In other words, they’re currently using laptops with built-in cameras. They could use a Suitable bot, but those start at around $16,000, although the company is apparently bringing out new options in the $2,000 range. Or they could use a Double from DoubleRobotics, which is also around the $2,000 range.

But, Polyakov says, not moving is a feature.

Above: Ilya Polyakov

Image Credit: John Koetsier

“The big thing that bothered us about telepresence was that it was unsuitable and unsafe at home, and in the office, it’s hard on WiFi,” Polyakov says. “Whenever Suitable does their demos at a tradeshow, they set up their own Wi-Fi infrastructure to ensure great reception … if there’s any latency, you’re going to drive into a wall.”

There’s no doubt that a remotely drivable robot for telepresence is cool. But it does come at a price — a much steeper price than the $500 Kubi. And I can see corporations such as Intel having second thoughts about a remote platform for viewing that could potentially be controlled — or even hacked — by anonymous outsiders. There are potential security implications.

The two founders have been smart not to try to create their own video platform. Kubi simply doesn’t care what videoconferencing solution you use: free or paid. They do have an upcoming integration with Blue Jeans Software, however, which makes using Kubi and controlling its view even simpler. With the new integration, viewers can change their perspective simply by clicking around in the video stream. Also coming: a built-in speaker for better volume in large conference rooms.

Not everything, of course, is simple.

Kubi started out in the $200 range, and now it’s $500. That’s partially due to high-quality injection molded parts and the current built-by-hand one at a time production process. Now, however, having shipped over 200 robots, the team is looking for high-speed contract manufacturers, as well as larger facilities for the team as they graduate from Lemnos Labs and move into their own facility next month.

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]]>0This telepresence robot is missing legs and wheels — on purposePet-feeding robot startup gets $1.1M. Where did we go wrong?http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/21/pet-feeding-robot-startup-gets-1-1m-where-did-we-go-wrong/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/21/pet-feeding-robot-startup-gets-1-1m-where-did-we-go-wrong/#commentsTue, 21 Jan 2014 17:47:55 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=885513Here’s one to put the pet-sitters out of business: Petnet, a remote pet-feeder company, has garnered $1.125 million from various investors in a seed round. The L.A.-based startup makes a glorified food bowl (called the SmartFeeder) and companion mobile and web apps that let you kinda-sorta take care of your companion animal from afar. We […]
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Here’s one to put the pet-sitters out of business: Petnet, a remote pet-feeder company, has garnered $1.125 million from various investors in a seed round.

The L.A.-based startup makes a glorified food bowl (called the SmartFeeder) and companion mobile and web apps that let you kinda-sorta take care of your companion animal from afar.

We guess this works for animals who eat more than two or three times per day, and the app provides a few quantified-pet metrics, such as caloric intake. It’ll also alert you when you’re running low on kibble.

But as a pet owner myself, I’m giving this product a giant eye-roll. As Petnet points out via email, “Feeding plays a central role in the life of a pet.” And if you want to delegate something that important to a robot, I have a few thoughts on the subject.

If you’re too lazy, too busy, or just too dumb to feed your pet, maybe you’re not pet-owner material. If you can’t tell when your pet is over- or underweight, if you can’t tell when you’re running out of food, and if you can’t remember when they get their meals, you don’t need a SmartFeeder — you need a more responsible caregiver for your pet.

Whatever. I’m apparently in the minority, because quite a few investors have thrown their hats into Petnet’s ring.

For the seed round, backers include Grishin Robotics, Kima Ventures, SparkLabs Global Ventures, and Launch Capital. With the $1.125 million, Petnet hopes to take the SmartFeeder to market by the middle of 2014.

French tech company Keecker is launching a connected robot for your home that projects movies, plays music, browses the web, and captures sounds and images.

The Paris-based company is unveiling the robot at the 2014 International CES, the huge tech trade show in Las Vegas this week. The Keecker robot has a powerful video projection system as well as a 360-degree audio and video capture system. It works through your smartphone, and it rolls around your house on motorized wheels.

With this robot, the company hopes to change the way people think about digital media, making it easier to share collective experiences at home and bring families together.

“Creating a new dimension between technology, entertainment and our imagination, Keecker merges the physical and digital worlds for the first time,” said Pierre Lebeau, chief executive and founder of Keecker, in a statement. “You can transform your home with just one single device, eliminating the need for the countless technology solutions we are forced into using today.”

Keecker uses its projector to transform any surface or wall into a big, immersive screen. It can project its content anywhere, whether it’s video, photos, interior design, or something altogether unique.

It can create experiences like drawing art on your walls, creating pop-up interior design for an evening, enabling you to walk through your house on a Skype call, and waking you up to a view of Tuscany on your bedroom wall. It can check your home details (temperature, humidity, sound level, light level, CO2 level, and more) and provide home security monitoriing while you are on the road. It can also entertain you with games and apps.

Keecker is 16 inches wide and 25 inches tall. You control it with a smartphone app (iOS, Android, and the web). It should be available to consumers for $4,000 to $5,000 in the fourth quarter.

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]]>1Keecker robot can project digital art and video in your homeThis ridiculous robot lets you spy on your pet and dispense treats from afarhttp://venturebeat.com/2013/11/04/this-ridiculous-robot-lets-you-spy-on-your-pet-and-dispense-treats-from-afar/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/04/this-ridiculous-robot-lets-you-spy-on-your-pet-and-dispense-treats-from-afar/#commentsMon, 04 Nov 2013 23:06:15 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=853594You know those weird people who spend hundreds of dollars on spa treatments for cats, or enroll their dogs in therapy? Well now these people can take their neuroticism to a whole new level with PetBot.
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You know those weird people who spend hundreds of dollars on spa treatments for cats, or enroll their dogs in therapy?

Well now these people can take their neuroticism to a whole new level with PetBot.

PetBot launched a Kickstarter campaign today for its robot that lets people monitor and interact with their pets from afar. These boxy devices come loaded with a remote-controlled live webcam, which you can orient remotely to spy on your pet.

Because God forbid you miss it licking its butthole.

“Some see pets as a person’s best friend, and PetBot wants to help you become an even better best friend,” said founder Misko Dzamba.

PetBot will notify you when your pet is near, should your separation anxiety be so pronounced that you need glimpses of Fluffy in real-time. You can also interact with Fluffy by pre-recording commands and triggering them through the accompanying app.

“Our extensive research shows that remote two-way audio is not the best way to interact with your pet,” Dzamba said. “Additionally, we have learned that pets are unable to hold a conversation, and owners may have difficulty finding a private place from which they can properly converse with their pet.

The fact that Dzamba needed research to tell him this information is concerning. But perhaps not as concerning as the person who installs PetBot in their home so he can spend his lunch break watching Fluffy sleep.

The robot also has treat-dispensing cartridges so your beloved canine isn’t forced to endure the hours of your absence without Milk-Bones. Your home shouldn’t feel like a gulag after all. This is 2013.

If you feel guilty about abandoning your pet while you are forced to go to work (how else can you afford the gourmet dog ice cream and embroidered puppy snuggies?), or fear that you missed a pricelessly adorable moment, PetBot also takes photos and loads them into a gallery for you to peruse at your leisure.

I consider myself a “normal” dog lover, meaning that I coo when I see dogs in the street and browse through puppy pictures when I need a mood booster. I don’t think its weird to let your dog sleep at the foot of your bed, and understand paying for a personal dog sitter so your dog doesn’t have to stay in a kennel when you are on vacation. I’d even splurge on a doggy Halloween costume.

But a pet-watching robot? That just crazy.

Fluffy probably prefers his peace and quiet anyway, without some creepy robot talking to him in your voice and fattening him up with treats.

The device is currently in the prototyping stage, and the Kickstarter campaign will help bring it to market. You can choose between the assembled robot or a DIY assembly kit. PetBot’s hardware and software is open source so people can develop new applications and features.

Dzamba is currently a masters student in computational biology, and PetBot is something of a side gig. The Canadian team is raising $19,000. PetBot costs $190 for the robot and $153 for the DIY kit.

]]>0This ridiculous robot lets you spy on your pet and dispense treats from afarRaspberry Pi-powered open-source bartending robot nearly funded on Kickstarterhttp://venturebeat.com/2013/03/14/raspberry-pi-powered-open-source-bartending-robot-nearly-funded-on-kickstarter/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/03/14/raspberry-pi-powered-open-source-bartending-robot-nearly-funded-on-kickstarter/#commentsThu, 14 Mar 2013 23:05:28 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=644291Who wouldn't want a Raspbery Pi-powered open source bartending that you control with your phone or tablet?
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For at least 353 people who have tossed $134,551 in tip money towards the project on Kickstarter, that question has an easy answer: everyone. And with a project goal of just a little more, $135,000, it seems certain that “Bartendro” will see the bright lights of night-time parties.

What does it do?

Bartendro is a “precision cocktail dispensing robot,” the project founders say, that “makes tasty drinks quickly and repeatably without the mess.” Plus, it’s portable and can be taken to events and parties.

But, assembling one does require some hacker cojones.

A tiny Raspberry Pi serves as the brain, operating up to 15 dispensers, which essentially suck booze out of whatever bottles you’ve got handy, then mix it to your specifications. The specifications are input via any WiFi-equipped smartphone or tablet, which you can mount on Bartendro’s frame for easy access and super-1337 status.

Assuming you have not been overcome by the fruits of Bartendro’s labor, the entire device disassembles and cleans up in about five minutes, its masters promise.

Some assembly is required, and if you are a coder, the entire codebase is open-source and available on Github.

Feeling energetic?

Bartendro could have a Microsoft Kinect attached for more interesting order, the project creators suggest. Or, more practically, a credit card reader to pay for all the ingredients.

]]>0Raspberry Pi-powered open-source bartending robot nearly funded on KickstarterThis monkey controls a robot on the other side of the world — just by thinkinghttp://venturebeat.com/2013/02/21/this-monkey-controls-a-robot-on-the-other-side-of-the-world-just-by-thinking/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/21/this-monkey-controls-a-robot-on-the-other-side-of-the-world-just-by-thinking/#commentsThu, 21 Feb 2013 20:55:07 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=626446"This is the complete liberation of the brain from the physical constraints of the body," brain-machine interface scientist Miguel Nicolelis says.
]]>It started with a monkey controlling a ball on a screen with its arm. It progressed to become a monkey controlling a ball on a screen with its brain. And it ended by a monkey controlling a robot in Japan … just by thinking.

“This is the complete liberation of the brain from the physical constraints of the body,” brain-machine interface scientist Miguel Nicolelis says in a recent TED talk.

Nicolelis is a pioneer in neuroprosthetics and brain-machine interfaces at Duke University. He’s helped develop technology to “listen” to the brain, to individual neurons and groups of neurons. He and his team can detect when neurons are firing and find patterns in “brain symphonies” that he can then hook into machines. The result is that an animal — like Aurora, his monkey — can learn to control a virtual avatars and real-world machines with no physical contact.

Above: The brain-machine interface

Image Credit: TED

In 2003, working with Aurora, Nicolelis discovered that the monkey could teach herself to move a virtual hand on a screen in order to get a physical reward — a few drops of orange juice.

“The model of herself that Aurora had in her mind has been expanded to get one more arm,” Nicolelis says.

Expanding on that, Nicolelis had her control a monkey avatar on a screen, which worked by sending feedback directly to her brain “without the interference of the skin” when Aurora was touching or moving things. But more recently, Nicolesis “took this to the limit” by having a monkey run on a treadmill at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and control a robot in Kyoto, Japan.

“What happens here is that the brain activity that generated the movement in the monkey were transmitted to Japan and made this robot walk, while footage of this walking was sent back to Duke so that the monkey could see the legs of this robot walking in front of her, so she could be rewarded not by what her body was doing, but by every correct step of the robot on the other side of the planet.”

Here’s the video:

Interestingly, the time it took for the signals from the monkey’s brain to travel to Kyoto, and for the visual footage of the robot walking to come back to Duke University was 20 milliseconds less, Nicolesis says, than the time it takes for the signals from our brains to travel down our spine and into our legs.

The meaning of this, according to Nicolesis?

“Our sense of self does not end at end of the cells of our bodies, but it ends at the last layer of the electrons of the tool that we’re commanding with our brains.”

Above: And the robot walks!

Image Credit: TED

The long-term goal? To restore the ability for people — quadriplegics and paraplegics — to control their own limbs again by bypassing the break in their spinal cord, and sending their brains’ commands to a “new body,” a robotic exoskeleton. It’s called the Walk Again project, and scientists in Europe, America, and Japan are working on it.

Perhaps, one day, we won’t even need the exoskeleton.

After all, as Nicolesis’ grandmother told him, “Impossible is just the possible that someone has not put enough effort to come true.”

]]>1This monkey controls a robot on the other side of the world — just by thinkingUC San Diego gives birth to monster baby robot — for sciencehttp://venturebeat.com/2013/01/09/ucsd-gives-birth-to-monster-baby-robot-for-science/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/01/09/ucsd-gives-birth-to-monster-baby-robot-for-science/#commentsWed, 09 Jan 2013 21:18:24 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=601753The Machine Perception Lab unveils its latest project, an android infant that replicates real human facial expressions.
]]>A 4-foot, 3-inch, 66-pound baby sounds like something out of a horrific sci-fi movie. Particularly for someone like me, who is not a huge fan of babies.

The Machine Perception Lab conducts development of systems that simulate natural human facial expressions. The team worked with Hanson Robotics to create the face and Japanese robotics company Kokoro to build the body. The result? A rather alarming creature with a face that looks like a cross between a russet potato and a spawn of Satan, and a body straight out The Terminator.

The National Science Foundation funded this project in an effort to advance research in cognitive artificial intelligence and human-robot interaction. Basically, the goal is to imbue robots with emotional capabilities, although Diego gives me the chills rather than the warm fuzzies. He has high-definition cameras in his eyes and can react to his environment like a real, human, nonterrifying baby would.

“As much a work of art as technology and science, this represents a step forward in the development of emotionally relevant roboticsm,” said Hanson Robotics founder David Hanson.

The vision behind this project is to achieve greater understanding of infant cognitive development. Dr. Javier Movellan founded the Machine Perception Lab in 1997 to advance study of the brain by creating “machine perception primates” that can interact with humans in natural conditions. He worked with children and robots as part of the MP Lab’s rubi project, which analyzed how toddlers behaved when social robots were a part of their daily environment.

“Its main goal is to try and understand the development of sensory motor intelligence from a computational point of view,” Dr. Javier Movellan said, as reported by Gizmag. “It brings together researchers in developmental psychology, machine learning, neuroscience, computer vision and robotics. Basically we are trying to understand the computational problems that a baby’s brain faces when learning to move its own body and use it to interact with the physical and social worlds.”

Diego has been gestating (it’s OK, I am cringing too) for years and has at last made its film debut. The MP Lab also worked with Hanson Robotics to create an Albert Einstein robot which sports a Stormtrooper-like outfit below an eccentric tuft of white hair.

As much as I fear childbirth, it seems less frightening than spending an hour with either of these brilliant, yet disturbing, creations.

]]>2UC San Diego gives birth to monster baby robot — for scienceReal Jedi mind tricks: Scientists double efficiency of brain-controlled systems for powered prostheticshttp://venturebeat.com/2012/11/18/real-jedi-mind-tricks-scientists-double-efficiency-of-brain-controlled-systems-for-powered-prosthetics/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/18/real-jedi-mind-tricks-scientists-double-efficiency-of-brain-controlled-systems-for-powered-prosthetics/#commentsMon, 19 Nov 2012 02:52:17 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=576489Imagine an Oscar Pistorius, in the next summer Olympics, with smart legs and feet that move naturally, controlled by his brain in exactly the same way as his hands and eyes always have been.
]]>In the 2009 Bruce Willis thriller Surrogates, people control artificial avatars while securely ensconced in the safety of their own homes. Scientists have just made that fiction a little bit more real, as a paper published today in Nature Neuroscience makes clear.

Researchers led by Krishna Shenoy, a professor of electrical engineering, bioengineering, and neurobiology at Stanford, doubled the efficiency of implanted neural prosthetics to allow brains to control external systems, simply via thought.

In other words, moving things with your mind.

But it’s no Jedi mind trick, and it doesn’t even involve humans at this point, although human brain sensors that drive robotic limbs have been built. Rather, the experiments involved rhesus monkeys with sensors embedded in their skulls.

What makes it possible is that in both monkey and humans, neurons fire in recognizable patterns when we want to move our hands, feet, a robotic arm, or a cursor on a computer screen. By intercepting and decoding those signals, scientists have been able to allow people to control computerized systems simply by thinking.

The primary use case, of course, is people who are paralyzed or who have lost a limb. Eventually, researchers believe they will be able to give disabled veterans or paraplegics the ability to control powered electronic prostheses … hopefully returning their ability to grasp, move, walk, and control their world.

Imagine an Oscar Pistorius, in the next summer Olympics, with smart legs and feet that move naturally, controlled by his brain in exactly the same way as his hands and eyes always have been.

The massive improvement in Shenoy’s work, according to Science Daily, is due to a new algorithm, called ReFIT, that does a better job of interpreting neural signals — twice as good as previous attempts — and a focus on groups on neurons that fire when, for instance, the brain is attempting to signal a limb to move, rather than just single neurons.

ReFIT achieves 75-85 percent of the speed of actual arms, which makes “neuroprosthetic” devices increasingly viable, and learns over time from users’ corrections to get better, quicker.

Which is great news for those who need prosthetics in the future, and one step closer to mind-controlled robots.

Romo is controlled by an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch — or a modern web browser — and uses an iPod Touch or iPhone 4 or 4S as its brain and face. It has two-way audio and video, so could be used as an inexpensive telepresence unit as well — it retails for $150, and Kickstarter backers can reserve one by backing the project.

“Romo’s pretty amazing,” Hsieh says in the video. “It smiles at you, he’s happy to see you … it seems like it has a personality of its own.”

Above: The third-generation Romo

Image Credit: Romotics

The little personal robot can be used for spying, as the original Kickstarter campaign jokingly suggested, or telepresence, or even for mix-reality racing games. Little suggestion: don’t put your latest phone in Romo when you’re racing him.

In addition, there will be an API available so that hackers can create their own cool uses of the little robot.

As his creators said about the original robot, “Since Romo is a “true” robot, he’s infinitely programmable, and can be made to do just about anything.”

The new Romo is bigger, stronger, and faster, and will, if the Kickstarter campaign succeeds, add remote 2-way telepresence, computer vision, autonomous navigation, and facial recognition.

The company brings together high technology and recycling to address the world’s trash problem. Its flagship product is the ZenRobotics Recycler, an artificial intelligence system that separates raw materials from waste. The Recycler uses sensors like cameras, 3D laser scanners, metal detectors, and Near Infrared Radiation (NIR) to analyze waste. It then sorts through to reclaim raw materials and remove contaminants.

Customers are commercial and industrial organizations, particularly those that generate construction and demolition waste. The result is not only good for the environment, it is good for business. Reducing the amount of garbage sent to landfills saves businesses money in high disposal costs.

The investment was provided by international equity investment firm Invus and Lifelife Ventures, a Finnish technology accelerator. ZenRobotics is a Finnish company, based in Helsinki, with distribution in 49 countries around the world.

The funding will go towards “world domination”, as well as growing the company globally. ZenRobotics was founded in 2007, but the ZenRobotics Recycler only became available for purchase in July. The first customer was Mes Containers, a Belgian sustainable recycling company.

Whether the ZRR has is own version of EVE and if the robots will embark together on a galactic adventure is unclear, as the technology is still new. I, personally, hope the robots decide to remain on earth where they can make it a cleaner place to live.

Home-cleaning robot manufacturer iRobot announced today that it has acquired one of its key competitors, Evolution Robotics, for $74 million. Evolution Robotics is the maker of the Mint floor cleaning robots.

The acquisition means that the largest company in personal and home robotics, which has already sold over 6 million Roombas, is growing even bigger. And it’s acquiring some key technology it lacks.

Mint does a few things Roomba does not. First of all, it specializes in hard surfaces, dusting and then damp-cleaning floors better than a Roomba. Second, Mint has a repeat revenue business with name-brand cleaning cloths such as Swiffer. Third, and probably most important, Mint has better technology for navigating — via what the company calls “indoor GPS,” or NorthStar Navigation.

As anyone who has one knows, Roomba navigation can be a little head-scratching. In fact, Mint used that in, essentially, an attack ad on the market leader … which could be a little embarrassing now:

In a statement, iRobot chief executive Colin Angle said that the company would use its large sales and distribution network to expand sales of Mint products, which suggests that the Mint brand will remain, at least for some time.

Evolution Robotics’ current CEO will be joining iRobot as chief technical officer.

iRobot‘s Roomba, which promised to vacuum our houses for us, featured pitiful pick-up and puny batteries.

But that didn’t deter iRobot from its efforts to reinvent the world of grunt work. And persistence has paid off: Roomba is now 10 years old, and all grown up.

iRobot has sold over six million Roombas, each of which the company says cleans an average of 300 pounds of dirt over its janitorial lifespan. Add up the square feet covered, and you’ve got about 39 Rhode Islands, which is about 22 percent of Texas. Or 29 million football fields.

Perhaps more interestingly for YouTube fans, Roombas have been successfully ridden by turtles, babies, prairie dogs, and yes, of course, the obligatory cats and dogs.

]]>02 billion pounds of dirt and 1.7 trillion square feet later, Roomba celebrates its 10th anniversary (infographic)DoubleRobotics: telepresence gets sexy (and made in the USA)http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/13/doublerobotics-telepresence-gets-sexy-and-made-in-the-usa/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/13/doublerobotics-telepresence-gets-sexy-and-made-in-the-usa/#commentsMon, 13 Aug 2012 18:41:20 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=507828oubleRobotics has just released a telepresence solution that isn't ugly, awkward, or the apparent product of a Junkyard Wars amateur hour competition.
]]>DoubleRobotics has just released a telepresence solution that isn’t ugly, awkward, or the apparent product of a Junkyard Wars amateur hour competition. To speak in the positive, it’s sleek and beautiful and intelligent.

In a word, sexy.

A Y Combinator startup, DoubleRobotics’ debut product is Double: basically a cylinder and a stick. Just like a Segway, Double balances on its wheels. Unlike a Segway, however, an iPad rides Double, not you. You control it from your own iPad … wherever you happen to be, you see what it sees, and anyone who sees Double, sees you.

Take a look:

The robot, if you can call it that, is only 15 pounds. It adjusts height so you can communicate naturally at either standing or sitting height, and moves forward, backward, and turns as you control it from your own iPad or iPhone at a remote location. When not in use, two kickstands ease down from the cylinder between wheels, allowing Double to conserve power and wait for the next rider.

If you’re shocked that hardware this polished and sophisticated could be created on a typical Y Combinator budget of $20,00-40,000, join the club. But while the company has not received any other funding, and the Y Combinator money has helped, co-founder Marc DeVidts told me that there’s been other sources of income.

“We’ve been working for about a year,” DeVidts said. “DoubleRobotics was bootstrapped from the beginning by building custom robots for Fortune 500 companies.”

The Double will be built in the USA: assembled in Miami, with components fabricated all over the U.S. in various factories. The cost is $2,500, but it can be pre-ordered for $2,000 today.

Image credit: DoubleRobotics

]]>0DoubleRobotics: telepresence gets sexy (and made in the USA)13-foot 12,000-pound mechanized robot suit now for sale in Japanhttp://venturebeat.com/2012/08/01/13-foot-high-robot-kurata/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/01/13-foot-high-robot-kurata/#commentsWed, 01 Aug 2012 09:34:30 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=501020Japan is the land of robots, right? But not just inoffensive little welding bots that make Toyota minivans and Honda Civics. Instead, Suidobashi Heavy Industry is showing off Kuratas: a 13-foot wearable robot that makes Call of Duty armored suits look like toddlers’ action figures. Kuratas weighs about 12,000 pounds, moves at a top speed of […]
]]>Japan is the land of robots, right? But not just inoffensive little welding bots that make Toyota minivans and Honda Civics. Instead, Suidobashi Heavy Industry is showing off Kuratas: a 13-foot wearable robot that makes Call of Duty armored suits look like toddlers’ action figures.

Kuratas weighs about 12,000 pounds, moves at a top speed of 7 miles per hour, and can be controlled by a pilot sitting inside an on-board cockpit. And it’s now available for the low, low price of just $1.3 million U.S. dollars.

However, fully decked out with a hand gun, LOHAS launcher, and “iron crow” (I believe that’s Jinglish for “iron claw”), my Kuratas specs out at $1.5 million plus.

Above: Yeah, it is seriously bad-ass

Image Credit: Suidobashi

Suidobashi says it is the the first “giant boarding-robot,” which I think means very big robot that you wear.

To pilot the Kuratas, riders climb up the front of the robot, press a button to open the cockpit, and step inside. Once seated, they can close the hatch but still see the outside world via a video screen.

It does not, alas, walk … but powered by a diesel engine, Kuratas uses four wheels on each of its legs to move. The arms move up and down and left to right, can grasp objects, and come with “weapons” such as pellet guns and water guns. You may or may not be happy to know that the weapons are “eco-friendly and safe for humans.”

Even better, the built-in LOHAS launcher, which fires what appear to be water bottles, hits its target “from time to time.”

Honesty in advertising, at last.

You can control the robot in three ways: direct manipulation of a smaller version, remote control via an app on a mobile phone, or touch screen and other controls inside the cockpit. (See instructional video, below.)

Suidobashi is not promising comfort — or safety. In an accompanying video (see below) the company says that “Kuratas is an art piece. It is not a normal vehicle.” However, the company is quick to say, Kuratas “makes your dream of becoming a robot pilot come true.”

The company is taking orders now and will customize paint schemes to customers’ wishes.

Surely Mark Zuckerberg needs one of these to scare off the financial press?

More pictures here:

[vb_gallery id=”501031″]

And, the sales video:

Plus the owner’s manual:

]]>113-foot 12,000-pound mechanized robot suit now for sale in JapanCheck out this phone-controlled robot from a Twilio/Node.js hackerhttp://venturebeat.com/2012/07/03/phonebot/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/07/03/phonebot/#commentsTue, 03 Jul 2012 18:50:04 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=484040An aspiring hardware hacker at Twilio has used his company’s own telephony APIs as well as Node.js and Arduino to build the charming robot you see in the clip above. We just about overloaded on developer buzzwords there, so let’s back it up a bit. The bot was built by Twilio developer evangelist Jonathan Gottfried, […]
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An aspiring hardware hacker at Twilio has used his company’s own telephony APIs as well as Node.js and Arduino to build the charming robot you see in the clip above.

We just about overloaded on developer buzzwords there, so let’s back it up a bit.

The bot was built by Twilio developer evangelist Jonathan Gottfried, to whom we say, nice work, Jon! There’s no quicker way to developers’ hearts than showing them how to build and code a robot, and no better way to evangelize for your company’s software than by using it in said robot in an actually interesting way. Twilio overlords, give this man a raise!

“Robots have fascinated me for as long as I can remember,” writes Gottfried on the company blog. He then proceeds to go into great, and we mean great, detail on how the bot was made “using Twilio, Arduino, Node.js, and the RN-XV WiFly module.”

The result is a robot you can control from your phone’s keypad. The post includes step-by-step images and lots of code snippets.

You might be asking, “Why, why in heaven’s name, would anyone use Node for such a task?” The Hacker News army asked the same thing, to which Gottfried replied, “It was the easiest way I found to set up a simultaneous HTTP server and TCP socket to the bot.”

In the HN thread, Gottfried also said, “The hardest part for me was getting the Wi-Fi module to work,” and, “It’s pretty fun to play with, honestly. Hasn’t tried to kill me yet….”

]]>2Check out this phone-controlled robot from a Twilio/Node.js hackerWii-controlled robot pets cat in YouTube video; Internet’s head explodeshttp://venturebeat.com/2012/01/03/catbottube/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/01/03/catbottube/#commentsTue, 03 Jan 2012 23:45:11 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=372015And now for something completely different: Here’s a video of a robot brushing a cat. The bot, a Nao model hacked by clever software developer Taylor Veltrop, is controlled with a Nintendo Wiimote, a Microsoft Kinect, a head-mounted display and a treadmill. The setup is perfect for that special someone in your life who loves […]
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And now for something completely different: Here’s a video of a robot brushing a cat.

The bot, a Nao model hacked by clever software developer Taylor Veltrop, is controlled with a Nintendo Wiimote, a Microsoft Kinect, a head-mounted display and a treadmill. The setup is perfect for that special someone in your life who loves animals but is constantly stymied by crippling pet dander allergies.

Veltrop’s video shows three views: his, the view from the Kinect and the view of a third party watching the cat/bot exchange.

We’ve had a Nao bot in our offices before, and these guys are adorable and quite hackable, too.

In the recent past, Veltrop has hacked his non-Nao “Veltrobot” + Kinect setup to do pushups and wield a knife.

Nao robots were designed by Aldebaran Robotics, a French company. Each Nao unit costs around $15,000 and is just shy of two feet tall at 57 centimeters. The bots walk upright and have toddler-like ranges of motion. But being outfitted with an array of sensors, the Nao-bot can navigate a room, track objects and respond to people and faces.

]]>1Wii-controlled robot pets cat in YouTube video; Internet’s head explodesHere’s how those smartphone-powered robots work & when you can buy them (video)http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/15/ologic-demo-video/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/09/15/ologic-demo-video/#commentsFri, 16 Sep 2011 00:56:50 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=332316A couple of days ago, we told you about the free-wheelin’, music-playing robots that OLogic showed off at the Demo fall conference. Today, we can show you more about how those robots work, how much they’ll cost, when you can buy them and more. AMP (that’s Automated Music Personality) will follow you around and play your favorite […]
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AMP (that’s Automated Music Personality) will follow you around and play your favorite music for you. You can attach an iPod or other digital music player to its back, or you can stream your tunes directly to the robot over Bluetooth from your phone. The AMP also comes with mobile apps for iPhone and Android to control the bot (with a virtual joystick) and your music.

I sat down with Bob Allen, Ted Larson, AMP (the two-wheeled music bot) and a new robot, the Oddwerx phone dock, for a lovely tea party. Watch the video for the juicy details on pricing and availability, as well as some of OLogic’s backstory in the robotics department.

]]>0Here’s how those smartphone-powered robots work & when you can buy them (video)